Ontario Pauses Reopening, Mandatory Vaccination for High Risk Settings
Earlier this week, the Province announced that it will pause the province’s exit from the Roadmap to Reopen, mandate mandatory vaccines in high risk settings (hospitals, home and community care service providers, ambulance services, retirement homes, etc.), and make third doses available to Ontario’s vulnerable population.
These measures were put into place in response to the rise in Delta variant cases in Ontario. While the province has reached the exciting milestone of more than 81 per cent of Ontarians aged 12 and over having received a first dose, and is expected to reach its target of 75 per cent vaccinated with a second dose later this month, out of an abundance of caution the government is pausing the exit from the Roadmap to Reopen. This means that all current regulations under Step 3 will remain in place until further notice.
The Chief Medical Officer of Health and other health experts will continue to monitor the data to determine when it is safe to exit the Roadmap and lift the majority of public health and workplace safety measures currently in place.
In the meantime, NOTO will continue to emphasize that reopening does not mean recovery. We will continue to highlight the struggles the resource-based tourism industry continues to face and the urgent need for additional financial support. With two full tourism seasons lost or substantially reduced for most, many do not have the funds to survive another season of restrictions and lockdowns.
We encourage operators to continue to share with us your stories. We want to know the struggles you may have faced, if you were successful at accessing the domestic market, how the Canada-US border reopening has affected your business, or if you are still struggling to fill vacancies and continue to face financial hardships. These stories greatly help us in our advocacy efforts.
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